I'm just a kit brewer, but Midwest Homebrew Supply has a rye beer I like. I think they call it Rogenbier. It has that 'hot weather is right around the corner' feel to me. As a matter of fact, I happen to have a box I can brew this weekend. That would make it ready to drink the same time the bees arrive! :-D

Braggot is a mead with honey being main fermentable but made with malted barley and hops. It will have to age for a year. There are 2 ways of makeing it. You can make a batch of beer, ferment it out with beer yeast, then add the honey and do a secondary fermentation with wine yeast. Or brew the beer adding the honey with 2 minutes left in the boil. It is then fermented with wine yeast. It is normally made still but I plan on ageing it in a corney keg and then force carbinating it. My OG was 1.145 and the first few days on fermentation was very violent. I used a blowoff tube. I used lavin D47 yeast which will die from high alcohol before all the sugar is used up. This is the reason for 5 oz of hops. I expect it to come out sweet and bitter

Just got a deal on a 50lb sack of 2 row malted barley. Traded for 10 lbs of honey. This weekend I will be brewing a all grain breakfast stout. This is a really great beer. Thick, dark with the taste of chocolate and coffee

Three months, two weeks after the boil we finally opened one of our 'Imperial' IPA's. Oh man, well worth the wait.

We boil/brew most of our beer over the winter, ales especially like the coolness of our root cellar and age very nicely and we're kinda partial to ales.

Next up will be a couple clones we've been wanting to try, a 'Surly' bitter and a 'Surly' furious. Should be able to open the first 'tongue splitter' ale in a week. Can't wait.

So this is what beeks are up to during the winter months :)

The best thing about brewing your own IMO, besides the relative cheaper cost, is that if you brew up ales especially, there's a 6 pack (or in some cases a 12 pack) worth of buzz in each 22 oz bottle 8-). Usually all I need.

We try to buy when ingrediants are on sale and still use kits when we get lazy. Our middle son is the 'real' deal' though making some amazing stuff. He's determined to become a professional brewer.

Cool thread, thanks.

thomas

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"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

My pale ale came out a little darker and heavier than planned. I left quite a bit of the hops in the primary fermentor,and I can tell ya it's definitely not one for the 'hey give me a light beer" crowd. :-DSince I like the hops flavor myself,it turned out okay.But next time i may have to watch the steep temps closer in the kit grains.Bottoms up!!

In our attempts to use up supplies we brew up a few 'Frankenstein' ales each season.

We don't particularly like following recipes so even the kits we buy can wind up with twice the recommended hops (we grow our own cascades, centennials and a northern Golding), dry hopping and 'every' batch gets at least 'one' heaping spoonful of honey during the process :).

We finally broke down and bought a cider press so we can start making some cider and ACV next year (we give the deer enough apples!!!)

thomas

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"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

Add a pound of wheat to boost head retention (per 10 gal batch). For lighter beers this will cause a bit of haze, but won't affect the flavor. For dark beers, who cares. You can't see through it anyway!

I racked 5 gallons of bragget into a corny that has been resting in a secondary for over a year. It came out at 16%. After 2 days chilling I tried it and was pleased. I had put 5 oz of hops in it and the bitterness came out nicely. Its well balanced. I have a brewing club Xmas party at my place on Sat. and will let everyone sample. I'm not going to carbonate it so that after the party i can bottle whats left and stuff it away in the wine celler